‘Nellie,’ she answered. ‘I can’trecall her maiden name, though.’
‘I can find that easily enough,’ Mortonresponded, scribbling her name beside Charles’s. ‘And their son, Alfred,was your father?’
‘That’s right—your grandad. He wasonly born in June 1914, so he definitely wouldn’t have known his dad—poorsoul. No wonder he never spoke of him.’
‘Charles can’t have been very old when hedied,’ Morton said.
‘No, in his twenties—older than a lot ofthose poor soldiers, though.’
‘Right,’ Morton said, adding the details tohis notepad. ‘With a bit of luck we can find Charles’s MIC,’ Morton said,opening up a new browser and heading to the Ancestry website.
‘His what?’ Margaret said with a chuckle.
‘Medal Index Card—a good starting pointfor World War One records.’
‘Off you go, then!’
Morton located the online records forWorld War One and entered Charles’s name into the search box. Of the twoavailable records listed, Morton clicked to view Charles’s Medal IndexCard. Seconds later, a salmon-coloured scan with blue handwritten inkappeared onscreen.
‘More code!’ Margaret lamented, when shesaw the baffling array of letters and numbers presented. She flung herhands up. ‘You’ll have to decipher it for me, Morton.’
Morton smiled. ‘I’ll give it my bestshot. Right. Obviously his name, Charles Ernest Farrier, you canread. He was in the second battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment, number7512. He was a private. He was awarded the Victory Medal, BritishWar Medal and 1914 Star.’
‘What are all those letters and numbersfor, then?’
‘They tell you where his name is enteredon the medal roll.’
‘Can we look that up?’ she askedhopefully.
Morton shook his head. ‘It’s onlyavailable at The National Archives in Kew. I’ve searched it before butmost of the time it doesn’t give any more information than the Medal IndexCard. I’ll take a look, though, next time I’m up there.’
Morton ran his finger down the card. The section marked ‘Theatre of War first served in’ had been left blank. Belowit, however, the part marked Date of entry therein had been entered as‘12-8-14’.
‘Look, he went out on the 12th August1914, which means that he was a regular soldier—not volunteered orconscripted.’
‘K in A 26th December 1914?’ sheasked.
‘Killed in action.’
‘Course it is!’ Margaret said.
Morton scribbled down the new informationthen reverted back to the list of records available for Charles. He nextclicked on ‘UK Soldiers Died In The Great War, 1914-1919’.
Name: Charles Farrier
Birth Place: Lambeth, London
Birth Date: 2 Feb 1890
Death Date: 26 Dec 1914
Death Place: British Expeditionary Force
Enlistment Place: Chichester
Rank: Private
Regiment: Royal Sussex Regiment
Battalion: 2nd Battalion
Regimental Number: L/7512
Type of Casualty: Killed in Action
Theatre of War: Western European Theatre
‘Place of death, British ExpeditionaryForce?’ Margaret said incredulously. ‘Is that a mistake?’
‘No, that’s a blanket, cover-all term themilitary used since so many casualties were never found.’
Aunty Margaret shook her head. ‘Sowas Charles not found, then?’
‘Er…hang on,’ Morton answered, switchingback to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website. ‘No. Panel20 and 21 means he was one of God knows how many men whose bodies were neverfound.’
Both Morton and Margaret paused whilstthey digested this information.
‘Poor Granny. Imagine being toldyour husband’s been killed in action but there’s no body to bury, no funeralservice, no grave to mourn at.’ She took a deep, reflective breath. ‘We don’t know we’re born.’
‘Indeed,’ Morton agreed. ‘That’s allAncestry seem to have on his military career. Let me just checkFindmypast.’ With a few quick clicks, Morton was presented with threerecords for Charles. Two were identical to those already searched. He clicked the third—‘British Army Service Records 1760-1915’ and waited as afour-page document loaded: Army Form E.504. ‘It’s Charles’s militiaattestation form.’
‘And what’s that then, when it’s athome? Looks like there’s a lot on there.’
‘It’s basically his enlistmentpapers. Usual questions, like name, age, address,’ Morton said, scanningdown the page for additional information pertaining to his great grandfather’smilitary career. ‘So, it says he was a painter and decorator prior tojoining up. He was married, with one child under fourteen. He’dnever been in prison…’
‘I should hope not!’ Margaret interruptedwith a laugh.
‘He signed up for six years in 1910…poorbloke can’t have had a clue what would happen four years down the line.’ Morton clicked onto the next page. ‘This is his personal information—Ialways find this helps me to better imagine what they looked like.’
Margaret leant forward and squinted at thescreen.
Apparent age: 20 years 3 months
Height: 5 feet 10 inches
Weight: 10 stone 6 lbs
Chest measurement minimum: 29 inches
Chest measurement maximum: 32 inches
Complexion: Fresh
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Light brown
Religious denomination: Wesleyan
Distinctive marks, and marks indicatingcongenital peculiarities or previous disease: scar on right forearm
From the physical description in front ofhim, Morton could have been looking at his own details at the age oftwenty-four.
‘Gosh, we’ve found a lot already. Isthere more to be unearthed?’
‘Possibly. There’s a lot beingdigitised right now. Some unit war diaries are already online but theydon’t usually mention individual soldiers by name.’
‘Still, worth a look,’ Margaretsaid. ‘I’d love to know more.’
The credits of the programme whichJuliette and Jim had been watching rolled, spurring a flurry of yawns andstretches.
‘Anyone want the TV on?’ Jim asked.
‘Not for me, thanks,’ Julietteanswered. ‘Think I’m about ready for bed. How are you two getting on?’she asked, wandering over towards Morton and Margaret.
‘It’s just amazing what’s out there,’Margaret replied, shaking her head in disbelief. ‘You wouldn’t creditwhat he’s found about my grandfather this evening. So interesting!’
‘Oh, believe me, I know what he’s likewith his research,’ Juliette said with a grin. ‘On that note, I’m off tobed. You coming up?’
‘Yes, I think we’ll call it a day, don’tyou, Aunty Margaret?’
‘Only if we can carry on tomorrow.’
‘Fine by me,’ Morton answered, shuttingthe lid on his laptop. Morton said goodnight and headed up to thebedroom.
‘Sounded like you two were getting onpretty well,’ Juliette whispered, having pushed the bedroom door shut.
Morton smiled and sat down on the edge ofthe bed and began to undress. ‘Yeah, it’s nice—just like old times,really. It’s been lovely finding out about my own family history foronce, but I have this awful feeling that she doesn’t want to talk about whatI’ve come here to talk about. I can just see the two of us researchingher grandfather’s military career for all of Christmas, then we’ll head homehaving missed our opportunity.’
‘I’m sure she’s just waiting for the righttime,’ Juliette
